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With piki rangi evidently indicating the vertical dimension - Sun going down in the west and darkness rising in the eastern sky - kihikihi mahina should by contrast indicate the horizontal dimension:

Kihi

Kihikihi, lichen; also: grey, greenish grey, ashen. Vanaga.

Kihikihi, lichen T, stone T. Churchill.

The Hawaiian day was divided in three general parts, like that of the early Greeks and Latins, - morning, noon, and afternoon - Kakahi-aka, breaking the shadows, scil. of night; Awakea, for Ao-akea, the plain full day; and Auina-la, the decline of the day. The lapse of the night, however, was noted by five stations, if I may say so, and four intervals of time, viz.: (1.) Kihi, at 6 P.M., or about sunset; (2.) Pili, between sunset and midnight; (3) Kau, indicating midnight; (4.) Pilipuka, between midnight and surise, or about 3 A.M.; (5.) Kihipuka, corresponding to sunrise, or about 6 A.M. ... (Fornander)

Lichen lies flat on the ground. And also, kihikihi refers to ashes - by way of the colour grey. When Sun goes down the colours disappear, excepting those in the scale from black to white, with grey in the center. Moon (Mahina) cannot produce any other colour than white or gray.

Once again Fornander delivers the necessary link between words and the cosmic structure: The time of sunset was Kihi according to the Hawaiians, and we can infer it means 'the time when everything becomes grey'.

Though Moon is coloured yellow from Sun, and the stars have all the colours. Kihikihi refers to the surface of the earth, not to the 'inhabitants of the sky'.